Comic Book Reviews (August 19, 2015)

Beware, spoilers follow.
This week’s comic book releases have been a doozy, with numerous titles vying for our attention and money. As posted earlier this week, we recommended three titles to look out for, and here are the reviews for said titles.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #43

The Drakseid war wages on. The first few issues in this on-going saga has been interesting on all levels and is a culmination of events ever since the first couple of issues of Justice League. In this issue, the narrative continued and a new player was introduced to the board in Kalibak, and instantly got me thinking how he would fit in the picture. We also got to see Batman continue to wield the power of a god, and the chair may just have corrupted his ideals with his reluctance to step-away from “his” mobius chair.
The appearance of Scot Free is likewise intriguing on just how he would affect the impending war. Meanwhile, the unlikely tandem of Superman and Lex Luthor is intriguing. The trend continues with Superman being depicted as a powered-down hero, especially in this issue, with the sun not shining on Apokolips. Clearly Superman is not keen on having to team-up with Luthor and being saved by Luthor. The biggest twist came though with that eerie “negative” version of Superman.

This saga is shaping-up to be a classic.

Score: 4.7/5 Comicbooks

1872 #2

When I first heard about this series, I was truly intrigued on how they would reimagine our beloved Marvel heroes to become cowboys, or just even the thought of it being a Western was good enough, but never would have I thought that it would be this interesting.
As with every Western epic, the star would be the Sheriff, and having Cap as the Sheriff is perfect with his ideals and steadfast persona. And with where things were left-off in the first issue, Kingpin’s posse was the perfect Western stand-off drama. The action sequences were on-point and palpable with the right amount of suspense and drama, worthy of any duel. However, the only gripe I have about the duel was the brevity of it, we could have had a lot more action, and that conclusion to all of it felt unearned. The plus side of it though is that said conclusion bought about a chain reaction in Tony Stark, Black Widow, and Ben Urich.

Score: 3.5/5 Comic books.

ARCHIE #2

With a successful relaunch already in the bag for Archie, the pressure is on to follow-up on such a great start. The second issue did not disappoint!
Familiar elements to the Archie lore were reintroduced ranging from Archie’s clumsiness, his jalopy, and how he brings the worse out of Mr. Lodge. As with the first issue, this current one was divided in chapters, and my favorite out of them was that of Jughead’s. Now I’ve been a fan of Archie and read hundreds of stories, but never have I encountered Jughead’s origin story, so by reading this I was amazed. Never in a hundred years would I have known just how sad his past was. Which, in turn, makes a lot more sense just how mature he is as compared to his peers.

Betty’s piece was also entertaining and heartbreaking at the same time. Clearly the break-up/lipstick incident has taken its toll on her, as much as it has on Archie. This clearly has that rom-com vibe going on, and I’m not opposed to that. The last page was also a mixed bag of emotions having that smidgen of hope of things turning out okay, but then again Veronica is now in town and clearly Archie is smitten.

Score: 5/5 Comic books.

Gino is the Gladiators’ resident TV and Comic Book reviewer. He is a lawyer in the making at day and full-on geek by night. He believes that the lightsaber is the best weapon during a zombie apocalypse. #AgeOfTheGeek